One day in the mid-1990's,
David Russell (Arne MacPhearson, POPULATION 436)
wakes up to find his son in a comatose condition. Rushing
him to the hospital, he discovers that all of the town's
children are similarly non-responsive. Waiting for someone
to attend to his son, he sees a news report that confirms
that every child in the world under nine years of age have
simultaneously fallen into this catatonic state. Ten years
later, they are still unresponsive. David's younger brother
Tom (James Van Der Beek, THE RULES OF ATTRACTION) is
released from prison and comes to stay with him. While most
of the town's children are cared for in the high school
gym-turned-medical ward, David has been caring for his now
grown but still catatonic son Eric (Chad Panting). Tom also
hopes to reconcile with his ex Jean (Ivana Milicevic,
CASINO ROYALE) but she wants nothing to do with him. The
same night of Tom's return, all of the comatose children
simultaneously wake up and attack the adults in a vicious
massacre. Tom escapes with Jean's brother Sam (Brad Hunt,
BLOW) and they head to the high school to find Jean.
They baricade themselves in a supply closet with eight
surviving members of the medical staff and Tom climbs into
the air ducts where he finds Jean. Meanwhile, Sam helps the
others down a laundry chute and inadvertently right into
danger. The survivors run into the sheriff (John P.
Connolly), his wife Nora (Dee Wallace, THE HOWLING), his
deputy Nate (Bradley Sawatzky), and teens Kip (Joshua Close,
DIARY OF THE DEAD) and Claire (Brittany Scobie) who
escaped the plague by a year and seem to relate more to the
catatonics than the adults. Sam is injured and the group
hold up in the church when they discover that the children
now have guns and know how to use them.

The feature debut of Hal Masonberg, THE PLAGUE seems
from its synopsis like any other "killer kids" movie (and
that was what it was pitched as by the producers) but
Masonberg's cut is thoughtful and suggestive (the
catatonic-yet-receptive state is also a wonderful metaphor
for the way in which we shield children from more overt
adult things while believing that children are deaf to
things they should not be able to comprehend). Van Der Beek
and Milicevic may actually be physically old enough to play
their characters but neither of them look it. Neither are
particularly compelling leads but they make the pivotal
climactic scene work. The supporting cast is mostly fine
(with nods to MacPhearsen and Wallace who jumps right back
into terrorized victim territory without even the luxury of
an introductory scene (even in the director's cut). While
Masonberg largely resists MTV editing in favor of artful
transitions, sometimes he does let some shots linger a
trifle too long (the long pullback from the meaningful
deaths of two characters shifts from anguish to "get on with
it" in a few extra frames) but the measured pace is largely
effective and refreshing. The cinematography of veteran DP
Bill Butler (ROCKY) features consistently provocative
compositions and naturalistic lighting (although some of
this is dulled by the DVD dailies resolution and lack of
more sophisticated color correction tools). The orchestral
temp music is fitting although sometimes the levels dampen
some of the sound effects.

THE PLAGUE was taken out of his hands by distributor
Screen Gems who re-edited the film without his input.
Several character bits are lost (and contained in the
deleted scenes as they appear in the director's cut -
looking slightly better here but still in 4:3 widescreen).
While the director's cut had all of its credits at the end,
the producer's cut adds a cheap-looking 34 second opening
title sequence on black followed by about 40 seconds of
second unit footage. Several other bits of second unit
establishing shots take the place of Masonberg's more artful
transitions in the producer's cut. Not all of the deleted
scenes were completely removed. Some were trimmed to clip
the long, tense pauses (like David and Tom's reunion) while
others feature alternate takes with some different dialogue.
The producer's cut seems to want to render the plague in a
more visual and ambiguous manner while rushing the character
bits. For instance, a scene of Tom watching a talk-show
interview in which a woman talks about the plague (as seen
in the director's cut) is replaced on the TV screen with
some stock news footage of world chaos while Tom's reunion
with his brother-in-law Sam features some extra dialogue in
the producer's cut emphasizing all that Tom had to lose when
he got in a bar fight that resulted in manslaughter and a
prison sentence. The Father Jim character completely loses
his introductory scene (it is featured in the deleted
scenes) which was one of the film's many references to John
Ford's adaptation of
THE GRAPES OF WRATH. The suspenseful scene of the
teens beginning to rouse from their catatonic states is
differently edited here and lacks the setup seen in the
director's cut. Overall, the differences were to pick up the
pace, erase any subtle rendering of character and mood, as
well as removing one bit the producer's thought too strong
(featured in the director's cut and in the deleted scenes on
the Sony release of the producer's cut).

Fortunately, Masonberg was able to secure his own
in-progress cut in the form of DVD dailies along with other
footage. In the days when Dimension Films was a relatively
interesting genre company, a handful of their more ambitious
projects were similarly tampered with and have not seen wide
(or any) exposure in their intended forms (Guillermo del
Toro's MIMIC and Kevin Yagher's HELLRAISER:
BLOODLINE come to mind). The Clive Barker presentational
credit had already lost some of its cache by this film's
release in 2006 (Barker's fans expect his name to be
attached to unusual projects - and the occasional tired
HELLRAISER sequel - but his own LORD OF ILLUSIONS was
perhaps the last really worthy film to bear his name and it
has been reported that he actually had very little
involvement behind the scenes on this one) and it did not
seem to get the film much notoriety when it finally hit DVD
in compromised form. These days, home video editing can
render professional results and Masonberg was not only able
to assemble something close to his original concept but also
to render visual effects and prepare a double disc special
edition (although it is not for sale) and a project once
dumped directly-to-DVD can find new exposure on the internet
(Masonberg's website features links to several articles
about the film, interviews with the cast and crew, and
detailed comparisons of the director's cut and producer's
cut with flash video excerpts). Is Masonberg's director's
cut superior to the theatrical version? Certainly. Vastly.
Is it an unheralded masterpiece? No, but it is an assured
feature debut with an ambitious treatment of a familiar
story (which recalls THE CRAZIES and
CHILDREN OF THE CORN as much as it does Narcisco
Ibanez Serrador's incredibly disturbing WHO CAN KILL A
CHILD?) that respects its audience's intellect and their
willingness to get to know characters gradually and take in
details of the setting without being hit on the head with
them (as the producer's cut is wont to do).

This DVD is NOT
available to the public. The set was prepared by the director as
a proposal to distributor Screen Gems to fully restore the
feature (the director's cut is compiled from an offline edit and
workprint dailies and, as such, is presented in 4:3 widescreen).
His website
www.spreadingtheplague.com features an online petition
to Screen Gems to convince them of interest in restoring the
film's original cut. The extras include a commentary by director
Masonberg in which he explains the intent of every turn of the
plot and every choice of shot (and the producer's reaction to
his deliberate pacing). Disc 1 also features a director's cut
trailer and a text screen statement about the transfer. Disc 2
features "Spreading the Plague" a 71 minute documentary (indexed
and encode with 17 chapters) featuring input from several of the
cast and crew members. It not only features behind-the-scenes
info but also covers the post-production struggles in more
detail. The Storyboard-to-Film featurette shows 4 sequences in
splitscreen with the film scenes and the computer-drawn
storyboard versions (all with optional commentary). This is
followed by an animated storyboard version of one of the major
sequences. A deleted scene with optional commentary depicts Jean
saying goodbye to a wounded Sam when she, Tom, and Kip sneak
into town to look for a working automobile (this scene is
featured in the producer's cut). The production bible section
features the director's notes on nearly every scene discussing
visual inspirations, themes, etc. The director's statement is a
piece that Screen Gems asked Masonberg to write for potential
investors about his intents with the film (it seems in line with
what his cut reflects in contrast to the producer's cut).\

Sony's DVD of the
producer's cut features 5.1 audio, a jokey, intermittently
informative audio commentary featuring the editor and actors
Brad Hunt and Joshua Close (from which the director is
noticeably absent) and 18 minutes of deleted scenes. Obviously,
this transfer looks better (it is single-layer as the DVD9
accommodates both 4:3 and 16:9 versions of the Super 35mm
feature) having been derived from an HD master - albeit one that
was color corrected without the input of experienced DP Bill
Butler - but the 18 minute difference in running times is not
explained by the 8 deleted scenes (the director's cut set also
has its own deleted scenes with optional commentary) as there
are major structural differences. Although the director has said
that this version does not reflect his vision, it might be worth
checking out to give you an indication of how good the film is
meant to look transfer-wise and to see some alternate versions
of scenes in the director's cut (sort of like watching both
GANJA AND HESS and the re-edit BLOOD COUPLE).
Although the film was shot in Super 35mm for 2.35:1 matting,
neither version exposes the entire periphery. The Sony transfer
shows more info on the left while cropping the right side while
the director's cut transfer shows more on the right side of the
frame while cropping the left.

While the director's cut is not for sale, several of the extras
are available in whole or part on the director's website
including the hour+ "Spreading the Plague" featurette with
cast/crew interviews.